The Grimrose Girls
By: Laura Pohl
Release Date | August 1
Genre | Fantasy
I am a sucker for high school/boarding school murder mysteries. The ones I gravitate towards are cheesy, drama filled, and sometimes a bit ridiculous but that's what I crave in these types of reads, think One of Us Is Lying or The Ivies, and is why when I saw The Grimrose Girls by Laura Pohl, I jumped. I have added this to my own reading list and thought this new release must be shared with others just in case they adore boarding school murder stories as much as me!
Welcome to The Grimrose Girls revolving around a murder and four troubled friends. Ellis, Yuki, and Rory have become the subject of gossip at Grimose Académie after their friend's mysterious death. The police have ruled it a suicide but the three do not believe it to be so and set out to find the truth. Truth that will lead them to dark secrets, terrifying destinies and a fantastical cycle that must be broken to ensure they do not meet the same fate.
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A Lesson in Vengeance
By: Victoria Lee
Release Date | August 3
Genre | Young Adult
Yes, another boarding school release to add to your reading list! Dalloway School was home for Felicity until her girlfriend died. After a year away she has returned to the ivy covered school nestled in the Catskills mountains to finish what she started and graduate. She even has her old room to return too in Godwin House rumoured to be haunted by the ghosts of five girls, some say they were witches, that died one after another on the grounds of Dalloway.
Felicity is drawn to them, their history, and the witchcraft that is woven into Dalloway Hall but after her girlfriend's passing, she just wants to be done except Felicity is finding it hard to finish her senior thesis surrounded by the occult history and a new girl who won't stop bringing it up. A new girl named Ellis Haley who is a novelist prodigy, brilliant, and a woman Felicity is drawn towards. It is why when Ellis asks her for assistance on researching the Dalloway Five that Felicity cannot bring herself to say no and when history begins to repeat, Felicity will finally have to face the darkness.
Find the review | HERE | for A Lesson in Vengeance
The People We Keep
By: Allison Larkin
Release Date | August 3
Genre | Fiction
April Sawicki lives inside a motorised home her father won in poker. Having failed out of high school, April picks up shifts at the local diner trying desperately to find herself in a place that has never felt like home. When she "borrows" a car to perform at an open mic night, April comes to the realisation that her life could be so much more than the town she lives in.
After a vicious fight with her father, April packs her bags and leaves starting the journey to find a life of her own. A life that is just for her. As she travels she writes down the stories of her life in song format discovering along the way that where she was born never dictated her future.
Find the review | HERE | for The People We Keep
The Fair Botanists
By: Sara Sheridan
Release Date | August 5
Genre | Historical Fiction
Edinburgh, London is abuzz with rumours about King George IV's upcoming visit. But, for those invested in botany, their interests are piqued by a different rumour - that the Agave Americana plant is ready to flower, a bloom that occurs only once every few decades.
Elizabeth, a newly widowed and determined to put the past behind her woman has recently moved to Edinburg to stay with her late husband's aunt and it is here where she falls in love with the surrounding botanical garden. As her interest in botany increases she meets Belle Brodie, a woman with a passion for botany and creating lucrative perfumes. Belle is keeping her true reason behind her interest in the garden a secret from Elizabeth but secrets do not stay as such for long and when revealed, lead Elizabeth and Belle to discover the consequences of such lies.
Wicked Little Deeds
By: Kat Ellis
Release Date | August 5
Genre | Horror
Cul-de-sac
By: Joy Fielding
Release Date | August 10
Genre | Thriller
Situated side by side in the heart of a cul-de-sac are five families. All are hiding secrets from their neighbours and not all will make it through the night. It might be the household of Maggie and Craig, the couple whose demons have followed them from Florida. It might be Nick or his wife Dani whose successful careers hide their terrible secrets. It could be the elderly widow Julia whose grandson has recently moved in bringing with him troubling habits and friends she does not approve of. There is Olivia and her husband Sean whose recent job loss has him spiralling out of control.
And lastly, there are the newlyweds with newly divorced threatening to become their label. A wide array of neighbours, all who have access to guns, and one who will be shot dead in the middle of the night.
Gone for Good
By: Joanna Schaffhausen
Release Date | August 10
Genre | Mystery
For lovers of detective mysteries, Gone for Good by Joanna Schaffhausen may be right up your alley with mystery, murder, and an intriguing detective. The first in the Detective Annalisa Vega series, Gone for Good is about the Lovelorn Killer and two detectives - one amateur and one professional.
Grace Harper is a grocery store manager by day but at night, is a detective currently researching the Lovelorn Killer. She believes he continues to reside in his hunting ground and if she can figure out his motive, she will be able to discover who he is.
Of the seven victims killed at the hands of the Lovelorn Killer, one of them is someone Detective Annalisa Vega knew. As she stands over the dead and gruesomely bound body of Grace Harper, there are clues scattered around her that could help Annalise find the killer and heal her family from the pain the Lovelorn Killer created.
Find the review | HERE | for Gone for Good
Call Me Athena: Girl from Detroit
By: Colby Cedar Smith
Release Date | August 17
Genre | Young Adult
Call Me Athena: Girl from Detroit by Colby Cedar Smith is a young adult novel written in verse based loosely on the authours own paternal grandmother and her experience as an immigrant living in Detroit in the 1930s. I am not one for poetry but the blurb drew me in and I am interested in pushing myself out of my comfort zone and reading something different.
Mary is the daughter of Greek and French immigrants, a first-borne American, living in Detroit. She lives in a cramped apartment with her family and within the confines of the space questions why her parents thought America was worth moving too. Mary craves independence. She craves modernity. She craves to own her own business and her parents - well, they want her to be a "good Greek girl."
Interspersed with flashbacks of her parent's childhoods, Mary's journey connects with their past to tackle issues of independence, culture, and arranged marriage. Through the use of three narrators, Call Me Athena: Girl from Detroit delivers the message of what courage is to remain connected to one's own heritage but also what it means to love, to be free, and to be equal.
Chasing the Boogeyman
By: Richard Chizmar
Release Date | August 17
Genre | Horror
During the summer of 1988, several missing girls are found mutilated in a small Maryland town. The police believe the gruesome murders are from the hands of one serial killer but soon, a rumour spreads that that may not be the case - the killer is whispered to not be fully human.
Richard Chizmar; recent college graduate, writer, and almost newly wed has just returned to his hometown his arrival throwing him in to the thick of a rampant madman and the horrors surrounding him. Inspired by the events, Richard writes a personal account of how the killer held the reigns over the town unaware the story would haunt him for decades to come.
The Family Plot
By: Megan Collins
Release Date | August 17
Genre | Thriller
Twenty-six year old Dahlia Lighthouse was raised in seclusion. Isolated deep in the woods, there she grew up with her siblings and crime obsessed parents. Now, she struggles to live in the real world finding it tough to move on from her eclectic past, especially when part of it includes her brother's disappearance.
After years of avoidance, Dahlia has returned to the mansion in the woods to attend her father's funeral and it is there, surrounded by family, that a gruesome discovery occurs. In the family plot lays a body - the body of her brother.
Each member handles the discovery different. Charlie is determined to create a family museum focusing on the Lighthouse research into murder victims. Dahlia's sister, Tate is creating dioramas of crime scenes and her mother is descending into despair transforming before Dahlia's eyes into an unknown entity. As Dahlia attempts to tackle her own pain, she realises the return is actually an opportunity to find out what happened to her twin buried in the family plot.
